Brands are replacing typical methods and investing more in social media marketing. Social media has impacted consumers’ life so hard, people don’t even realize that they’re going through ads on their newsfeed. Unlike newspaper and TV, you can’t flip the channel on social media, making their ads unavoidable. And due to the global audience reach, social media marketing rewards you a massive return on investment.

There are lots of social media networks and some are extremely popular amongst the target audience. But the question remains, which social media is the best for basing my brand on?

The answer? Instagram.

Instagram’s publicity has been rising steadily since it’s debut in 2010. With more than 500 million active users, it is the 2nd most popular social media network as of now. And marketers are loving it.

But Instagram is famous not only because of their user base. After all, Facebook has a bigger user base than IG. But in terms of ease of use, engagement, and target market reach, Instagram stays the king.

Over the course of this piece, we’ll go over 12 reasons why Instagram is the #1 priority for marketer. Let’s get started.

(1) Instagram Is A Visual Platform

One prime benefit of Instagram that sets it apart is its focus on visuals.

Unlike other social networks, Instagram contains photos and videos only. And while you can put out some text as well, the text is not a must.

This is especially helpful since most people remember visuals more than texts or audios.

Plus, usually, videos outperform images in terms of engagement and results. However, both – videos and images – outdo social media posts without either.

This directly gives Instagram the upper hand over other platforms which don’t require one of the two to post.

Having a video or photo-based platform lets your followers brand better. Plus, it enables them to engage with your content more. Both of these factors bring your Instagram followers one step closer to a purchase.

(2) Instagram Users Are Active And They Spend A Ton of Time On The Platform

This is where Instagram outperforms other networks. A study stated that Instagram users are 58x more likely to like, comment or share a picture compared to Facebook. And that’s the final extent of buyers engagement.

More shares and comments are a plus for your business. Another massive upside is Instagram users love the platform and spend a ton of time there.

(3) Better Target Market Reach

In terms of shopping, young men and women are emotional consumers and it’s easy to influence their shopping choices. About 60% of internet users between 18-29 own an Instagram account.

Youths today earn a ton of money and they’re open for spending if you convince them with an excellent product.

And what better place than IG for posting a hi-def photo or a short clip of your product and lead the buyers to your site?

And to top things off, almost 70% of the entire IG users are females who are madly in love with shopping.

(4) You Can Track Leads And Sales Through IG Ads For Seeing Clear ROI

While this benefit may seem obvious, you’d get surprised knowing how many companies spend on platforms without judging the strength of it.

Because Instagram uses the same Ads Manager platform Facebook does, it comprises all the same tracking abilities that Facebook has. You can monitor it all, from link clicks to leads and conversions. And also see the cost per result on any of your campaigns.

Meaning that, depending on your goal, you can always monitor how many results you got and at what cost.

Aside from that, you can break the results down to see who was reached and where they came from (gender, age, region, device, intrests).

This knowledge helps you understand what would be the best place for spending your money.

IG’s analytics and tracking abilities are what makes A/B split testing not only worth it but, incredibly effective.

Tracking metrics is a prominent benefit of Instagram. It’s crucial to see clearly which ad and ad set is bringing you the best revenue, and IG ads allow you to do just that.

(5) Instagram Distinguishes Personal And Business Profiles

Instagram sets personal accounts apart from business accounts.

Turning on the business mode unlocks a ton of features designed to help you market your business.

Some of such features involve a call-to-action button for your page visitors, the capability to market your posts with ad dollars, and access to account information.

It even offers Instagram users a clear understanding that the page they’re on is run by a business, and isn’t a normal IG page.

This adjustment gears up your account for success for reaping all the benefits of IG for marketing.

(6) Generate An Audience That’d Stay Connected With Your Brand

One of the beauties of IG is, it comprises all of the paid advertising features like Facebook. In fact, it has something that Facebook doesn’t: organic functionality.

When we say organic functions, we refer to actions that you can take or results you can accomplish without directly paying for them in advertising dollars.

As for Facebook, if you want to create the number of fans and/or followers that your business page comprises, you’d have to pay for them with Facebook ads.

On IG, you can grow followers organically. This cultivates an extremely natural relationship between your followers and your brand from the beginning rather than forcing the connection with paid ads.

It’s like the snowball effect, where, the more followers you comprise, the more others start following you. Such word-of-mouth, organic follower growth is a huge plus, especially for newer companies.

Aside from whatever effort you put into growing your followers, half of the Instagrammers follow brands anyways, meaning they are more likely to follow your brand only because you’re on Instagram.

When a buyer follows your brand on IG, they’re deciding to see your content on their feed. This articulates strong, intrinsic interest from their side, and you can keep on cultivating the relationship from there.

As aforementioned, there are 500m active IG users, and at least 266,666,667 are buying specifically through IG ads and profiles.

Let’s say your business is not on Instagram. Will you ever be able to reach them?

200m Instagrammers visit the profile of a business every single day, but, your company won’t be on that list should you not use Instagram.

Imagine Instagram as an extension or hand for your company. The more active you stay on Instagram, the more active you’d be to your potential buyers on IG.

(8) You Can Always Use Instagram To Empower Your Other Marketing Initiatives

One major benefit of Instagram is, you can pack up all the data and information you gain from it and use it for all of your other marketing initiatives.

The entire traffic that you send through Instagram can be retargeted on other platforms too, for instance, Facebook, Google+ etc.

You can also use you IG posts to market other ongoing marketing initiatives and the other way around.

Cross-promotion channels and marketing initiatives let you enhance the reach of the channel and motivate existing followers to track with your brand on other mediums. More touch points simply mean more sales than your competition.

(9) Instagram’s Ad Platform Can Access The Most Advanced Social Media Advertising Targeting Options Available

Now that we’ve shown how many IG users exist and how likely they are to buy, let’s go through how to utilize this data.

As we know, Instagram was purchased by Facebook, consequently, making IG’s capabilities rapidly increase to start matching FB’s features. Facebook is famous for being one of the most sophisticated advertising platforms. You can narrow down your audience by age, behavior, interests, and location on Facebook. Same with Instagram.

Meaning that you can dive into the 266,666,667 Instagram users who are an open-wallet.

Aside from the given cold target options, IG comprises the same broad retargeting capacities that FB does. Cold targeting here means people who’ve never seen or heard about your business. They are cold and require the warm-up for becoming a consumer and hopefully returning buyer.

Retargeting refers to aiming for people again who know about your business already.

The most prominent type of retargeting is targeting your site traffic who haven’t purchased anything yet. IG offers this and more.

(10) More Than 1/3 of IG Users Have Used The App To Purchase A Product Online

I’d give you one word:

SALES.

In the end, every businessman is working for sales. Even now, you’re reading this post because you want your sales to explode.

It’s crucial that you know what you’re investing in is worth it (aka is about to offer a ROI). So, how worthy is IG? Well, let’s feast our eyes on some facts.

Over 1/3 IG users have used the platform to buy items online, which makes them 70% more likely to buy again than non-Instagram users.

Let’s drill down a bit more here. As aforementioned, there are 800m monthly active users on IG. Meaning that 266,666,667 IG users (that 1/3) have used IG to buy an item online.

The number of potential customers waiting to interact with your brand is massive. Not just followers, these are real people with a history of purchasing on Instagram. And their next purchase might just be your product.

Further, 70% of IG users take action like visiting a site, after seeing an IG ad. And while they may not buy on the first visit to your site, you can retarget them to ramp up your sales count.

(11) IG Helps You Reach New Audiences

Instagram eases up the process of finding new photos, people, and businesses.

One prominent way people find new content on Instagram is by using hashtags. Just like other social platforms, when someone throws in a hashtag in a post on IG, a link gets created and you can see all of the pictures shared associated with that hashtag.

You can also put out hashtags to find potential buyers. For instance, Florida uses hashtags to discover people posting pictures of their nearby pets alongside an introduction. This especially helps you establish yourself as a local business.

Aside from hashtags, Instagram also comprises a Discover tab designed to help users find pictures and connect with relevant users.

(12) Generate sales

Cranking out professional images for promoting your products and spotlighting your services easier and more affordable than ever.

For this reason, visual platforms like IG are going beyond than simple engagement. They’re also generating sales.

One study from Shopify revealed that the average price of a sale through Instagram is $65, while Facebook gets $55 and $46 for Twitter.

Be wary not to flood your feed with product pictures using the same caption hollering “BUY NOW” or “SHOP ONLINE”. Rather, figure out better ways to showcase your items and let the images speak for themselves.

(13) Instagram Offers Behind-the-scenes Footage

While sharing photos that provide a behind-the-scenes of your business, it can go a long way towards creating a sense of rapport and intimacy between your work and those you’re giving it to.

This falls under one of the most powerful ways social media can help you ramp up your game. A picture of your item being created or the service you provide being performed from the viewpoint of an “insider” can really challenge and fascinate potential clients and customers. This is amongst the reasons why television is full of shows of people doing interesting jobs.

It’s in our genes to be curious to know the behind-the-scenes.

(14) You Can Team Up With Influencers

In terms of social media, you’ve got your regular viewers, and then, you’ve got influencers. For those unaware, influencers mean online celebrities who’d promote a product or brand to level up their business.

A reliable influencer can net your company sales with an entirely different level using increased ROI and access to demographics that you won’t reach normally.

A well-known influencer can help you spread the word about the product or company to thousands of followers using only a few posts.

(15) Instagram Is A Goldmine Of Useful Feedback And Insights

Just like a smart marketer, you probably monitor conversations about your products and brand on social media. You keep track of your mentions on blogs, forums, Facebook and Twitter. However, do you know what people are stating about your brand on IG?

Whether you have your brand on IG or not, people would still use the platform to talk about your services and products, just like other social networks.

They’re already posting photos of products they bought from you, making videos, and leaving comments on each others content regarding your brand. You cannot (and should not) simply ignore this voice.

Such feedback is essential for understanding both – how customers perceive the brand. And how to identify the brand advocates.

All this and more makes Instagram a goldmine of handy insights into your customers, so make good use of it.

Conclusion

IG is incredibly strict about fake accounts and they ensure that their brand name receives a certified sign, so people can point out the brand they really love. It’s crucial to have a presence on every social media platforms, however, if you’re planning on your SMM for 2018, IG should reign supreme on your list.

About the Author:

Mehedi is a freelance writer/blogger helping businesses grow with red-hot content. You can visit his site PowerhouseBlogger for actionable business tips. And if you want Mehedi to help you with content, you can hit him up on Facebook or Twitter.